February 15 – Daily Notes – Amanda

Obviously not every minute of Jesus’ life could be recorded. Mark takes that to the extreme…as in, he doesn’t even record the birth of Christ. If you ever want to give someone a version of Jesus’ ministry they can read in a week, Mark’s your guy.

Exodus 39:1-40:38:

The passage says, “as the Lord had commanded Moses” several times. It is significant that the Israelites obeyed God’s instructions exactly. We also saw this from Noah when he built the ark. He followed God’s plan, “just as he instructed.”

20-21 – The ark of the testimony or Ark of the Covenant represented the presence of God. It was, for obvious reasons, very valuable to the Israelites.

34-38 – God’s presence, in the form of a cloud, allowed the Israelites to know when to travel and when to stay put.

35 – Moses could not enter the tent while God’s presence was there because of his sins.

Mark 1:1-28:

Mark’s gospel moves much more quickly than any of the others. It is believed that it was the first gospel written around 70 AD. It was most likely written quickly because Christians were being badly persecuted during this time and the writer was just needing to get an account down.

2-4 – John the Baptist fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy about a precursor to Jesus who would prepare the way for him beginning some of his messages, particularly baptism and forgiveness of sins.

8 – Before John, there is not a lot of mention of the Holy Spirit.

9 – Note that Jesus appears in Mark as an adult. He tells nothing of his birth, childhood, or preparation for ministry.

11 – A powerful message from God to think about when people are baptized.

24 – Interesting that an unclean spirit is the first to recognize Jesus for who he is.